ABOVE / The Kenyans also prospered in With Kristiansen and defending Olympic champion Joan Benoit of the United States the 3,000-meter steeplechase — all three out of the race, Rosa Mota, a 5' 2", 99-pound Portuguese woman, was the clear are running with the front-runners at this favorite in the marathon. Since a third place finish in the '84 Games, she had won point of the race. Eventually, Julius nine of 12 marathons she had entered, including the '87 World Championships in Kariuki (No. 653) won the race in Olym- Rome. pic record time and Peter Koech (No. 659) took second. Mark Rowland (No. Mota led throughout most of the race, but she was not without company. Australia's 452) of Great Britain won the bronze. Lisa Martin, the GDR's Kathrin Doerre and the Soviet Union's Tatiano Polovinskaia (Bob Long/LPI) pressed her late in the race, but Mota moved ahead in the final few miles, dropped her rivals and claimed the gold medal with a time of 2:25:40. Martin was second in 2:25:53 and Doerre, third, in 2:26:21. Italy's Gelindo Bordin had no sooner crossed the finish line in the Olympic Stadium than he went to his knees and planted a kiss on the track. "It was like a war out there," he told reporters, but no one was sure if he was referring to the battle for the medals or the army that followed the race. Bordin had to outkick the likes of Houssein Ahmed Saleh, the pre-race favorite from Djibouti, and Doug Wakiihuri, the 1987 world champion from Kenya, in the last three kilometers to win the marathon. Bordin clocked 2:10:32, finishing just ahead of Wakiihuri and Saleh, who finished second and third, respectively, with times of 2:10:47 and 2:10:59. It was the same threesome that had medaled in the '87 World Championships, but in a different order. The men's marathon, the final event of the Games, completed another shutout of the Americans in the distance running events. The United States could do no better than Pete Pfitzinger's 14th place finish. 41 ATHLETICS.